Old Testament scholars generally agree that the oracles of the Israelite and Judaean prophets known to us from the Old Testament include an important political aspect. During the years a large number of studies have been dedicated to this theme. 2 The question that would seem to have dominated the exegetical debate concerns the relationship between religious and political ideas in the Old Testament prophets. In particular, scholars have striven to reconstruct the prophetic vision (s) of a» religious «or» Yahwistic «policy, which, it is assumed, was advanced by the prophets as an alternative to the» secular «politics usually conducted by the kings of Israel and Judah. 3

1 This article was written during a sojourn at the Accademia di Danimarca (Det Danske Institut for Kunst og Videnskab) in Rome in the autumn of 1987. I wish here to record my gratitude to that venerable institution. My special thanks are due to professor Mario Liverani, Rome, for his inspiring and encouraging hints and suggestions. 2 Out of the vast literature extant on this subject, we mention here only a few, selected titles. See eg Friedrich Weinrich, Der religiös-utopische Character